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Sunday, 4 September 2016

Max Keiser interviews Kim Dotcom

Keiser
Report: Mega Week in News ( ft. Kim Dotcom)

In
this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the mega
week in the news: from Apple’s mega tax bill to Trump’s ‘yuuuge’
visit to Mexico. They also discuss Mark Carney’s warning about
“dishonest bankers” and their “misconduct” threatening
another mega disaster in the financial markets.

In
the second half, Max interviews MegaUpload.com founder, Kim Dotcom
(@kimdotcom) and his lawyer, Ira Rothken (@rothken), about MegaUpload
2.0 and Bitcache.

They
also discuss his ongoing trial against the might of the Hollywood
copyright industry and the US government.

Kim
Dotcom vows to expose ‘trail of US government abuse’ through
extradition appeal livestream

Megaupload
founder, wanted by the US on copyright infringement charges, is
“looking forward” to livestreaming his extradition appeal as it
will unveil a whole “trail of government abuse”, Kim Dotcom and
his lawyer told RT.

“You’re
going to see a trail of government abuse…you’re going to see that
the United State came to New Zealand, got involved in a raid… and
the court is going to hear all this,” Ira
Rothken, Kim Dotcom’s lawyer told RT hoping the live streaming
which is to begin next week will help his defendant win his case and
expose government wrongdoing.

“We look
forward to the entire world shining a light on this government abuse
through this livestream and this is exactly how democracy should work
and we’re very optimistic. It shows Kim Dotcom’s innovative mind
and brilliance to go ahead and use the internet as a way to actually
show the world what’s going wrong with the government…”

Despite
huge opposition from the US, a New Zealand court last week granted
permission for Kim Dotcom to livestream his legal bid to fight the
extradition appeal. Dotcom remains wanted by US authorities who
accuse him of copyright infringement, racketeering and money
laundering in connection with the seized Megaupload site.

Rothken,
however, said that the US does not have any legal grounds upon which
to indict Kim Dotcom, as there is the so-called Safe Harbor agreement
which applies to “ISPs
from any criminal liability” and
laws with the New Zealand that “do
not make any kind of species of alleged infringement even a
crime.”Kim
Dotcom who lost all his assets because of the US court orders has
been indignant about the whole situation.

“The
United States has indicted me with copyright infringement even though
I’m not directly charged with that infringing of files…and
because I use my treaty rights to fight extradition, a US court has
found that I’m now a fugitive and under the fugitive disentitlement
they have forfeited all my assets which now belong to the United
States government,” Dotcom
told RT's Max Keiser.

“I
have lost all my assets without any trial, without any hearing…
I’ve never been to the US and yet that’s what happened.”

Calling “fugitive
disentitlement” a “draconian
doctrine” gifted
to the Department of Justice by the US Congress, Rothken said the
measure was no more than an excuse for the US to make up new laws and
carry out secret government operations.

“This
is offensive to any type of justice and it’s part of the triangle
of destruction that the United States uses as a game-plan from making
up laws which they did in this case to having secret government
proceedings which they did in this case when they took down
Megaupload with no lawyer for Megaupload present, and the third part
of that is forfeiture what they’re doing right here,” he
explained.

Dotcom
is furious with the US for imposing an “unethical
strategy” and
utilizing every opportunity to prevent him from having a fair trial.

“Even
though we have court orders giving me access to pay to lawyers, the
United States government tells my US lawyers ‘if u receive any of
this money you yourself are committing a crime’,” he
said.

When
shutting down the Megaupload website back in 2012, the US “infringed”
upon democracy itself, the lawyer said adding that the “First
Amendment was injured and injured irreparably” as
a result.

Both
Rothken and Dotcom express great hope in their winning the trial.
However, if they do lose the legal battle, the case would have
a “chilling
effect” on
the whole of the internet industry.

“This
can go out and affect any user-generated content site… So if Kim
Dotcom loses it will have a chilling effect on user-generated content
sites, on internet economics, it would elevate Hollywood economics
over those of technology companies…” the
lawyer said.

“This
is basically SOPA [The Stop Online Piracy Act] through the
backdoor…SOPA failed but if they win in my case, every internet
service provider will be forced to police the internet and to police
the users to not end in a similar situation like myself," Dotcom
added referring to the controversial bill introduced by the US in
2011 largely seen as a crackdown on the internet, freedom of speech
and privacy.

Dotcom’s
legal troubles over Megaupload started in January 2012 after the US
issued an indictment against him on charges of copyright and
racketeering in connection with the file-storing site. As a result
the website was shut down. The US alleges that its management paid
users to upload copyright-protected content and collected huge sums
of money from a growing audience.